Sometimes a muffin just hits the spot. Sometimes there’s just no need to have pretty dainty little cupcakes with perfect swirls of frosting and so much sugar that you either bounce off the walls or crash on the sofa. These are chocolatey. Deep, dense, dark unadulterated chocolate that isn’t overpowered by sugar. That’s important. Sometimes we get too carried away adding sugar to anything and everything that we bake, we end up missing the dominant flavour completely. Here, the almost sultry dark tones of chocolate are contrasted with tangy raspberries and sharp sea salt. There’s no blending of similar flavours as with something like chocolate and caramel, the contrast is very defined and very satisfying. If this analytical breakdown of flavours hasn’t convinced you to try these muffins, then maybe the lack of electric mixing equipment and sheer ease will 🙂

I definitely suggest bringing your fridge ingredients to room temperature here. Generally, I’m quite on the fence about this rule. I remember watching an old episode of Nigella as a kid and she was making cupcakes and said that it didn’t seem to matter. Since then (and because Nigella is EVERYTHING), I followed in the same vein. Numerous bakes later, I’ve formulated my own opinion… Sometimes, it really makes no difference but sometimes it does. It helps the batter to combine more smoothly if you aren’t using an electric mixer and i think it helps with something science-y in the oven. Don’t quote me though. *shifty eyes* 

  There’s no butter in these muffins. Yes, you read correctly, no butter! Butter adds flavour. The flavour, as discussed above, is sorted so therefore we abandon butter for sunflower oil and a super moist crumb. It’s a more than acceptable compromise, trust me!

Makes 12 muffins:

260g plain flour 

60g cocoa powder 

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb

pinch of sea salt (Don’t skip!)

145g greek yoghurt (I used fage 0% – big protein boost)

100ml milk

175ml sunflower oil (or vegetable/any unflavoured oil)

170g dark brown soft sugar (you can use light brown soft but the flavour won’t be as deep and intense)

1 large egg plus an egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g dark chocolate (I used 100g dark and 50g Green & Blacks Milk chocolate with sea salt = YUM) 

1 punnet raspberries (about 150g)

1) Bring the greek yoghurt, milk and eggs to room temperature by letting them sit out on the counter for 1/2 hour to an hour before you start

2) Heat the oven to 160FAN and line a muffin tin with paper liners

3) Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb and salt in to a bowl and set aside

4) Whisk the sugar, yoghurt, oil, milk, vanilla and egg+yolk until smooth

5) Add the dry ingredients to the wet folding very gently until just combined but still lumpy

6) Chop the chocolate up roughly and add it, along with the raspberries to the batter again folding very gently trying to keep the raspberries intact

7) Fill liners about 3/4 full and sprinkle with a little more sea salt if you’d like (I completely forgot – annoying) and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean, then let them cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack

Have the loveliest weekend!

Adapted from here